BANKING
World Bank to cut staff
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim announced a net 250 job cuts on Thursday — the first major job reductions under his reorganization plans at the bulked-up development bank. Kim said in an internal memo that the bank would eliminate about 500 positions in its Institutional, Governance and Administrative units — including operations like finance and technology and oversight. In addition, about 70 currently unstaffed positions will be eliminated, but the cuts will be offset in part by adding 250 to 300 jobs in the bank’s operations center in Chennai, India.
ELECTRONICS
Sony quarterly loss expands
Sony Corp says losses for July-September ballooned to ￥136 billion (US$1.2 billion) as the company’s troubled mobile phone division reported huge red ink. The Tokyo-based maker of the PlayStation 4 video game machines, Spider-Man movies and Xperia smartphones had reported a ￥19.6 billion loss for the same period a year earlier. The results yesterday came despite a 7 percent increase in quarterly sales to ￥1.9 trillion as performance improved in cameras, TVs and game businesses. Sony stuck to its forecast for the year through March next year of a ￥230 billion loss.
ELECTRONICS
Panasonic profit halved
Panasonic Corp yesterday said its net profit plunged 52.2 percent to ￥80.9 billion for the six months to September, but it lifted its full-year forecast partially due to strong solar panel sales. The Osaka-based company raised its full-year net profit forecast to ￥175 billion from an earlier estimate of ￥140 billion for the fiscal year to next March.
BANKING
Citi profit falls on legal costs
Citigroup Inc on Thursday slashed its third-quarter earnings by US$600 million due to higher legal costs, citing “rapidly evolving” regulatory probes expected to result in more large settlements. Citi, which bested analyst forecasts with its Oct. 14 earnings report, lowered quarterly net income to US$2.8 billion from the originally reported US$3.4 billion due to the additional charge. The US$600 million is on top of the US$951 million in legal expenses previously reported, which itself was an increase from US$677 million in the year-ago period.
BANKING
RBS sets funds for FX probe
Britain’s state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has set aside ￡400 million (US$639 million) to settle allegations of price-rigging in foreign exchange markets, it said yesterday. RBS revealed in a results statement that litigation and conduct costs for the third quarter “included ￡400 million of potential conduct costs following investigations into the foreign exchange market.” RBS also said that net profit rebounded to ￡896 million in the three months to the end of September, buoyed partly by cost-cutting, after a net loss of ￡828 million in the same period last year.
BEVERAGES
AB InBev profit up 5.5%
AB InBev SA, the world’s largest beer maker, has reported a 5.5 percent increase in earnings for the third quarter, as higher selling prices more than made up for volume declines in Europe and Asia. Net profit at the brewer of Budweiser, Stella Artois and Corona was US$2.5 billion, compared with US$2.37 billion in the same period a year earlier. Revenues were up 2.3 percent to US$12.2 billion, as volumes fell 2.6 percent, but the company’s revenue per beer increased by 4.9 percent.
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it plans to double investment in data center-related technologies, including advanced packaging and high-speed interconnect technologies, to broaden the new business’ customer and service portfolios. The chip designer is redirecting its resources to data centers, mainly designing application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities for cloud service providers. The data center business is forecast to lead growth in the next three years and become the company’s second-biggest revenue source, replacing chips used in smart devices, MediaTek president Joe Chen (陳冠州) told a media event in Taipei. “Three or four years
Until US President Donald Trump’s return a year ago, when the EU talked about cutting economic dependency on foreign powers — it was understood to mean China, but now Brussels has US tech in its sights. As Trump ramps up his threats — from strong-arming Europe on trade to pushing to seize Greenland — concern has grown that the unpredictable leader could, should he so wish, plunge the bloc into digital darkness. Since Trump’s Greenland climbdown, top officials have stepped up warnings that the EU is dangerously exposed to geopolitical shocks and must work toward strategic independence — in defense, energy and
Motorists ride past a mural along a street in Varanasi, India, yesterday.
For the second year in a row, a Brazilian movie has wowed international audiences and critics, securing multiple Oscar nominations and drawing fresh interest in the Latin American giant’s film industry. Experts say the success of The Secret Agent, which has won four Oscar nominations, a year after I Am Still Here won Brazil its first Oscar, is no fluke, with a bit of a push from the country’s political climate. “This is neither a coincidence nor a miracle. It is the result of a lot of work, consistent policies, and, of course, talent,” Ilda Santiago, director of the Rio International Film
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